


Magnify The Best Inside Me

by blackcatbone



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: A-spec Character(s), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Space, Aromantic Character(s), Asexual character(s), Cuddling & Snuggling, Developing Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Mystery, Other, Sharing a Bed, humans and aliens, relationship anarchy, symbiosis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:22:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23908426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackcatbone/pseuds/blackcatbone
Summary: When the crew of Burning Rescue ship BREN03 try to help a mysterious damaged shuttlecraft floating out in the furthest reaches of space, they find themselves drawn into a more complex rescue operation, involving the alien-bonded Burnish, who are not at all what they'd been led to believe.a.k.a. A space AU
Relationships: Burning Rescue Members & Mad Burnish Members (Promare), Lio Fotia & Galo Thymos, Lio Fotia & Gueira & Meis, Lio Fotia & Promare, Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos, Lio Fotia/Gueira/Meis
Comments: 33
Kudos: 72





	1. You fell out through a hole inside the sun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to [Chrissy_Sky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chrissy_sky) for beta reading.
> 
> This is my first Promare fic, after not really writing _any_ fic for over a year, due to life. Hope you enjoy it!

"Can we go back now?" Galo whined. "We've been out here forever!"

Lucia heaved a long, weary sigh. Galo waited, wide-eyed and expectant.

"It's literally only been a few hours," Lucia stated bluntly.

"A few really _long_ hours!" Galo insisted.

"We've nearly completed this patrol. If we turn around now then we'll have wasted all that time."

"But what's the point in patrolling when there's nothing out here?" Galo gestured with both hands at the empty expanse of blackness displaying on Lucia's viewscreen.

He'd come up to the ship's cockpit in the hopes that staring out at space would be more interesting than staring at the walls of his quarters, or the lounge, or the rec room, or the mess hall. But there weren't even barely any stars to see, just a whole lot of boring, boring black. Lucia wasn't even playing any music on the speakers like she usually did. There was nothing to see _and_ nothing to listen to.

"Um, that's kind of the point," Lucia responded, sounding a bit impatient. "There's not _supposed_ to be anything out here _at the edge of known space_."

That kind of sounded like the opposite of a point to Galo. He didn't see how that justified them having to spend hours out here patrolling. Lucia turned, saw him pouting, and rolled her eyes.

"If we don't find anything, that's a good thing!" She turned back to her screen. "Then there's nothing we gotta do and it's a nice, easy report to write."

"But I want something to do!" Galo protested. He folded his arms across his chest, slumping sulkily back against the wall and glaring at the floor. "I wish something _would_ show up so I could do something besides sitting around."

"Careful what you wish for," Lucia sing-songed, about half a second before something flashed up on her console. Galo snapped to attention.

"What's that?" He stabbed a gloved finger onto the flashing orange alert on the screen. Lucia slapped his hand away.

"I might be able to see if you get out of the way-" She swiped her controller up to the alert and double-clicked to open it. Galo leaned over her shoulder to peer at it.

"Probably just space debris..." Lucia muttered, frowning slightly as she pulled out various bits of info from the alert to open up a bunch of new windows.

"But debris has to come from a thing, right?" Galo said. "Like, there has to be a thing there to make debris, and there's nothing out here, so..."

Lucia didn't seem to be listening. The screen was full of different windows now, displaying lots of numbers and graphs and lines and blocky images. And a page from the Burning Rescue space manual? Galo recognised the dull grey border from the many times that he'd gotten so bored he'd actually tried to read the thing. He never managed to get very far into it before the pages all started to blur into one.

"It's a distress signal!" Lucia suddenly squealed with excitement, practically bouncing in her seat.

"A distress signal?! That means there's people to rescue! Finally, my time to shine!" Galo puffed out his chest, striking his best hero pose.

"Well, no, not necessarily," Lucia said in her normal voice. "The signal's coming from a ship, so there may or may not be people on board."

"But... how can a ship send a distress signal without people to send it?" Galo looked from her to the screen and then back again in confusion.

"It's an automated function on small vessels like this," Lucia explained. "If they get damaged and no-one does anything about it for a period of time, they automatically send out a signal to let someone know to come and pick them up. Usually the pilot just disables it, 'cause if the damage is bad enough that they can't go anywhere, they'll be sending out a human Mayday anyway. So if there _are_ people on board this thing, they're not likely to be conscious."

"So... we should sound the alarm?"

"Already done it." Lucia grinned at him as the siren blared and the big rotating light attached to the ceiling of the cockpit covered the room in red flashes.

The rest of the team were up there in seconds. Aina and Varys crowded round Lucia's chair and Galo, to get a look at the screen. Remi stepped up to the console and hit a button to silence the siren.

"What've you got?" Ignis asked calmly from behind them all.

"Based on the signal it's sending out," Lucia responded, "a Dove class shuttle, either a TSJYB5191 or a KLYNH4502."

Ignis raised one blond eyebrow above his shades. "Something that small? Way out here?"

"Yeah, no idea how it got there," Lucia agreed, folding her arms behind her head and leaning back in her chair to look back at him. "We could take a closer look to verify?"

"All right. Take us to the edge."

Galo cast his eyes over the screen again, finally lighting on a live graphic that showed their ship as a little flashing red blob and the border of known space as a curved white line. He watched impatiently as the blob moved slowly closer to the line and Lucia brought their ship to the edge. This was the limit of the area that Burning Rescue were tasked with patrolling, the furthest reaches of the solar system that humanity had explored. There was no reason for any ship to be out beyond that border.

Ever more windows were blossoming on the screen now, as new data arrived and warnings popped up, and in one they could finally actually see the thing in front of them.

"It exploded," Galo said, staring out at the damaged shuttlecraft.

"Or something," Aina corrected. "Could've been a Burnish attack. We'd need to get closer to tell for sure."

"Life signs?" Remi asked, arms folded across his chest as he calmly surveyed the scene.

Lucia moved her controller a little and tapped a couple of keys.

"Yep. Basics, anyway - _something's_ alive in there." A few more key taps. "If I can send a signal back through the same channel that the distress broadcast's using, the onboard computer should be able to tell me more." She began typing in earnest. After a few lines of code were up on the screen, she hit a big button on the console triumphantly.

"So, what's it say?" Galo asked after a moment.

"It takes longer than a few seconds, Ga-lo," Lucia groused.

Finally, after what seemed to Galo like a great many minutes, a new line appeared underneath the code that Lucia had typed.

"Okie, let's see..." She typed a new line in response and a fresh set of numbers and code sprung into being beneath it. Lucia sat up out of her chair, pressing her face up close to the screen. "Engines are down, gravity generators and stabilisers are down, life support is partially down. Looks like it's running on backup power."

She sat back down again. All eyes turned to Ignis.

"Go or no go, Captain?" Remi asked.

"Go, of course!" Galo cut in.

"Not necessarily," Remi responded coolly. "It's outside of known space. We don't know exactly what the situation is. We could be risking the whole ship for nothing."

"If there are people in there then we gotta rescue 'em!" Galo insisted. "That's not nothing!"

"Yes, but we need to be cautious. If we get into any sort of trouble out there, there'll be no-one to come and rescue _us_."

"It's a big risk," Ignis acknowledged.

Galo's shoulders slumped. The shuttle was _right there!_ And there were life signs! How could they just fly away and leave it now?!

"Aina, prep the Hummingbird. Remi, Varys, suit up. Galo-" The Captain fixed him with a stare from behind his reflective shades. "-grab your gear."

-

"Think that's as close as I can get," Aina said, bringing the Hummingbird to a stop.

Lucia had taken the ship a little way beyond the border, into unknown space, although it wasn't actually possible just looking at it for Galo to tell the difference. Then she'd stopped and, maintaining a safe distance from the damaged shuttle, launched the Hummingbird, which was small enough to manoeuvre alongside a damaged vessel so that they could extract survivors. The rescue crew on board was made up of Galo, Aina, Remi and Varys.

"Definitely looks like a Burnish attack," Remi commented.

Out of the front windows of the Hummingbird they could all now clearly see the wreckage. There was a gaping hole in the front of the little shuttle, the cockpit almost completely destroyed. Bits of debris were drifting in a cloud surrounding it. Most of the pieces were relatively small, but still plenty big enough to cause problems for the tiny Hummingbird if they got too up close and personal.

"Yeah, but for that amount of damage, I'd've thought the scorch marks would be bigger," Varys added, eyeing the shuttle with concern.

"Burnish or no Burnish, there are still people alive in there," Aina said, studying the results of the close-range scans now appearing on her screen. Galo could see the little blobs of colour that represented those people standing out from the black background, filling up the outline of the shuttle's structure on the screen. Heat signatures were supposed to be red and orange, but these were barely managing yellow and green. " _A lot_ of people," Aina continued. "But that shuttle's so small! It just doesn't make any sense. Why would they come all the way out here in something like that?" She shook her head sadly. "It's just asking for trouble..."

"Trouble is certainly what they got," Varys said. "Looks like we're gonna need you for this one, Galo. That thing looks way too fragile as it is."

"We'll go ahead in the mechs and clear the debris so that Galo can get through and you can bring the Hummingbird in closer, Aina," Remi said, unbuckling his safety harness and rising from his seat. He headed towards the hatch at the back of the ship that led to the rear airlock. Varys gave them a nod before following. Moments later, Galo heard the airlock open and close.

"Galo?"

"Huh?" Galo tore his gaze away from the shuttle to look over at Aina.

"You're being unusually quiet." She eyed him with concern. "You okay?"

"Yeah!" Galo responded quickly. "Yeah, of course. I got this!" He flashed her a smile as he clicked open his own harness and stood up, following the way his teammates had gone to the rear of the ship.

His space suit was much more lightweight than the mech suits Remi and Varys used, designed so that he could actually go on board another ship to get people out manually. He'd done it a handful of times since he'd joined the team, but all those times the people he'd been rescuing had been conscious and actively trying to get off their ship. All they'd needed was a bit of guiding so they could do it safely.

Fighting fires in space was quite different from fighting them planetside. You couldn't just rush into a burning spaceship the way you could a burning building. Space was both your greatest ally and your worst enemy. No oxygen meant no fire. Even Burnish fires died quickly once they were exposed to space. And most ships were designed so that individual sections could be easily sealed off if a fire broke out inside, making it easy to get people out from another part of the ship.

Now, his suit fully sealed and tether line secure, Galo yanked the lever down to open the outer airlock. Even through the suit, he could feel the drop in temperature as he exited the ship. Activating the boosters on his suit, he quickly crossed the distance between the Hummingbird and the shuttle, entering via the hole in the hull, careful to avoid the jagged burnt edges.

There was no light inside, not even the emergency backup lights, so he had to switch on the torch on his helmet in order to locate the hatch to get into the passenger compartment. It was still sealed and for a moment he hesitated. What had Lucia said about the life support systems? That they weren't completely down?

"Aina?" he called into his radio. "The passenger compartment's still sealed. Is there- _Gah!_ "

" _Galo?!_ " Aina's distressed voice rang out loudly inside his helmet. " _What happened?! Are you okay?!_ "

"Yeah, I'm okay. I think I just bumped into something. Hang on." He moved his light up a bit to get a better look. "Yaheesh!"

It was a body. Dead. Frozen.

" _What is it?!_ " Aina asked.

Galo swallowed thickly. "Are there any life signs in the forward section? Where it exploded?"

" _No. They're all bunched up in the main passenger compartment._ " Aina waited a beat before she said, " _Some of them didn't make it._ "

It wasn't a question, but Galo still responded with a "Yeah." He moved away from the body. "Is life support still running in the back?"

" _Barely. The backup power's almost depleted, so the temperature and oxygen levels are dropping fast._ "

Galo bit his lip.

" _You're gonna have to open it, Galo_ ," Varys chimed in right on cue. " _Try and keep the time it's open to a minimum, but whatever atmosphere they've got left is gonna be gone soon either way, so don't let it slow you down._ "

Galo nodded, then realised that no-one could see that. "Right!"

He reached for the hatch lever and tugged the door open. Slipping inside, he carefully shut it behind him, then he angled the light around the room, to get a proper look this time. There really were _a lot_ of people. He counted maybe 20? No, it had to be more like 30-something? But the hatch was only wide enough to fit one or two people through at a time, maybe three if one of them was really small. It was gonna take him some time to get them all out.

He reached for the person nearest to him, a woman with long black hair wearing a simple green dress. Her expression was neutral, just unconscious, no signs of distress. She felt cold but she wasn't frozen. There was still time to get her and the rest of the passengers out alive, he just had to work fast.

Galo worked as quickly as he could, gathering the unconscious bodies up two at a time in his arms and ferrying them out through the hatch to where Varys and Remi were holding a transport cube steady whilst also continuing to keep the floating debris at bay. In reality it probably didn't take that long, but to Galo it felt like an eternity.

He'd almost managed to clear the compartment, having pulled out enough people to fill two transport cubes already, and was just placing two more adults into a third cube, when Varys' voice came through on his radio again: " _You need to hurry it up if you can, Galo. I don't think that shuttle's gonna hold together for much longer._ "

Following Varys' gaze back to the shuttle, Galo could easily see the danger for himself. There were jagged cracks stretching out from the scorched edges of the hole in the hull. The outside of the shuttle was built to withstand the cold of space, but the inside wasn't, and now that it was exposed it was coming apart and straining the hull as it did so.

"I'm hurrying!" Galo assured his teammate. Heading back into the shuttle, he swung his light around. There were still plenty of unconscious passengers to clear. He took a deep breath, grabbing hold of his gloved fist and cracking his knuckles. He was just gonna have to save them all.

One by one, he pulled them out of the shuttle. Some of them looked like they might be related and he found some children close to adults who could've been their parents, or aunts and uncles maybe. But otherwise the group was quite diverse, with people of all ages and different races. He hadn't seen any luggage floating around. Maybe it was all in a storage compartment, but most people usually had some kind of carry-on bag with them when they travelled. He wondered again what could have brought them all the way out here like this.

"Just a few more to go," he said brightly into his radio.

" _Better make it fast!_ " Aina warned. " _That hull's not looking so good on my scans._ "

"I will!" Galo called back. "I'm not gonna leave any of 'em behind."

Inside the shuttle, he grabbed hold of two more of the adults, pulling them as quickly as he could towards the hatch. Remi met him just beyond the edge of the hull, gathering the two passengers up with one arm of his mech suit to guide them back towards the rescue cube.

" _We might need to make a choice_ ," he told Galo over the radio. " _When the shuttle collapses, the blast wave is gonna send the Hummingbird spinning, and us!_ "

"No need!" Galo called back. "I've almost got 'em all!"

There were only three passengers left now, all adults. Ducking back into the wreckage, although he couldn't hear anything, Galo could feel the shuttle groaning around him. He gathered two of the remaining passengers into his arms and almost pushed off from the wall with his foot, stopping just short as he realised that that might not be such a good idea. The propulsion system on his suit was way too slow. The minutes seemed to stretch on and on like chewing gum as he flew back towards the hatch. The walls of the shuttle seemed to shudder, and then he watched as the hatch and a chunk of the wall surrounding it fell away, jettisoning out into space.

" _Shit!_ " he heard Varys curse as he braced for the impact of the metal against his mech suit. " _Galo, you need to get out of there!_ "

With no hatch to open anymore, Galo was able to reach him and the rescue cube a bit faster, and Varys helped him get the two passengers safely inside before closing it up. Turning back to the shuttle, Galo watched as another chunk of the hull broke off and fell away. It almost caught the side of the rescue cube, but Remi moved in to deflect it at the last minute.

" _Get your butts back on board, guys!_ " Aina yelled through the radio. " _We need to get clear._ "

Galo struck out for the shuttle once more. There was still someone in there.

" _Galo, get back here! You won't make it in time!_ " Remi called desperately after him.

" _Yeah, he's not listening_ ," Varys responded with a nervous chuckle.

With most of the wall gone, Galo was able to fly straight through towards the last passenger. With nothing to contain it anymore, their unconscious body had already started to drift out towards open space. Galo met them halfway, quickly wrapping his arms around them and hugging them close.

"I got you," he breathed in relief. But as he looked up he caught sight of a huge crack spiking out like a bolt of lightning across the far wall of the passenger compartment. His eyes widened. In his headset he heard Aina screaming his name. He had just enough time to spin around, turning his back to shield the unconscious passenger with his body, before he felt the crushing pulse of the blast wave hit, knocking both of them flying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Titles are from 'Big Bright World' by Garbage.
> 
> If you liked this chapter, please comment! I'd love to hear what people think of it and it helps my motivation to write more.


	2. Difficult and that's what made it burn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _There was just a little warmth, so slight that he barely noticed it unless he really focused. It was not coming from the embers he held. This was something else, something beyond the darkness. Something that could help him preserve the glow, he sensed._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who left feedback on the first chapter. Glad you enjoyed it and hope you enjoy this one too!

Lio woke to darkness, frozen and empty. Instinctively he curled in on himself. His movements were weak and sluggish; he barely had the strength to shiver.

Slowly he became aware of the feeling of something there with him, close to his chest, his core: the tiniest bit of heat. He could see something too, though it was faint, dangerously weak: a few small embers, still giving off the tiniest glow. He clutched them in his hands, curling his fingers around them protectively, holding them close to his body. So long as there was a glow, however faint, he still had a chance.

Then he noticed something else. At first he wasn't sure if it was actually real, or just some phantom of a hope. He reached out with all of his senses, prodding at the darkness that seemed to enclose him and the embers, until he eventually came up against something that wasn't frozen.

There was just a little warmth, so slight that he barely noticed it unless he really focused. It was not coming from the embers he held. This was something else, something beyond the darkness. Something that could help him preserve the glow, he sensed. He leaned into it, feeling the small, soft warmth up against his back. He hoped that it would be enough to save him and keep the embers burning.

-

Everything was a bit brighter now, warmer. The blackness seemed smaller and Lio was no longer paying much attention to it. The embers he held were glowing steadily, bright enough to illuminate his fingers. He could also still feel the small, reassuring warmth beyond where he was, previously pressed against his back and now along his side. He snuggled into it, holding the embers up to it so that they could share in the comfort.

-

Time had passed. Lio had no idea how much time, but logically he knew that it had to be the case. There were small flames nestled in his hands now, and as they'd burned, his faculties had started to return.

He knew that something was wrong - that these flames were smaller than he would've expected, that parts of him felt cold when they shouldn't have - but he was safe for now. Both he and the little flames had something to keep them warm. There was something out there, beyond the both of them. Lio pressed his forehead and the flames up against it. The warmth calmed him. 

-

By now, proper awareness had returned to Lio. He knew where he was. He understood what was going on. He couldn't quite remember what had happened to get him here; that part was still kind of fuzzy for the moment. But his current situation, _that_ he could wrap his brain around.

He was inside his own mind. It was a sort of deep stasis induced by the Flames in order to protect him. Which meant that his physical body was unconscious and most likely badly injured. He needed time to heal, and to let the fire he held in his hands grow taller and brighter.

The Flames were crackling happily now, radiating a more healthy heat, but they were not yet back to 'normal'. Both they and he still needed that external source of warmth to help them along. Back in the real world, _something_ was keeping his body warm and safe, and he needed whatever it was to keep doing so for a bit longer yet.

-

Lio was growing restless. He wanted to wake up now. He had no way of gauging exactly how much time had passed, but he sensed that it had been _too long_ already. He was fairly sure that he hadn't ever been under for this long before. But when he had made the choice to host the Flames, he had accepted that from that point onwards his body would be a democracy. He trusted them to decide what was ultimately best for him.

But he had started to recall the events that had brought him to this point. He remembered the explosion and the moments immediately following it, but after that he was drawing a blank. He needed answers. What had happened to the shuttle? Were the others okay? If he was alive then that was a good sign. Plus the external warmth. That had to mean that someone in the physical world was trying to help him, which definitely upped his chances of survival.

-

Lio woke to light, though soft and dimmed. It wasn't nearly so startling as the smell. It wasn't any scent in particular, just that everything seemed really intense somehow, like he hadn't smelt anything at all in some time and now suddenly his olfactory senses were being assaulted from all sides. Most immediately, there was something fabric-y, cotton perhaps, and also some kind of citrus scent. Lemon, or maybe lime?

His head was resting against something warm, something smooth and soft. He tried to focus on his limbs, to move his fingers and toes, but his body didn't seem to want to respond. He needed to wait, and maybe give his senses time to adjust a bit more first. The Flames, for their part, didn't seem especially interested in having him go anywhere. He could feel them burning contentedly inside him, warm and relaxed.

He tried to recall his situation. Clearly he had been unconscious. Was he injured? He tried to do a quick body scan, starting by acknowledging his toes and feet, then working his way up to the crown of his head. All his parts were present and accounted for, and nothing seemed to be hurting. He was fine, the Flames were fine, but where were they?

From his position lying down he couldn't see very much, but it looked like he was indoors. The panels that made up the walls of the room were white and pale grey, functional-looking with nothing distinctive about them.

"Oh, hey, you're awake?"

Lio felt the words rumble through him and realised that the warm thing he was resting against was the speaker. A _person_. The rest of the details fell into place then. He was lying in a bed, probably in a medical bay somewhere. Maybe on a ship? He remembered being on a ship, but...

He tried to speak, but nothing happened. He sighed inwardly. Clearly, this was going to be a slow process.

"Can you move?"

Lio tried to lift his head, but again nothing happened. That would be a _no_ , then.

"Here-" The person gently grasped his shoulder with a large, gloved hand, guiding him upright with them as they sat up a little in the bed. It left his head tilted up slightly, so that he could just about get a look at the face of his protector. Blue hair, big and spiky, and an open face, eyes curious.

"There you are." The stranger smiled. Lio could feel the steady pulse of their heartbeat beneath his cheek where it was resting against their chest.

Satisfied for now, he closed his eyes again.

-

Lio couldn't sleep. Probably, he suspected, because he had already been asleep for some time before. But moving didn't seem to be on the cards either, so he simply dozed, letting the world flow around him for the time being.

His protector had talked for a bit before they seemed to realise that there wasn't going to be any response yet and went quiet. Other people had come in and out of the room, exchanging a few words with the person in the bed. Doors made a shushing sound as they slid open and closed, and various cupboards around the room were rifled through at different points. Medical equipment beeped quietly at long intervals. The sheets on the bed rustled every so often, as Lio's companion adjusted their position slightly, trying not to disturb him.

Eventually, the Flames grew restless. He felt a few little flares inside him as they stretched. Apparently naptime was finally over, so Lio tried moving his fingers again. This time he did get a response, albeit a delayed one. It seemed to take a few rather long moments for the instruction to get from his brain to his body. He made a second attempt; still slow. He tried his toes as well, with the same result. Feeling slightly miffed, he let himself settle back into a doze again.

-

"Hey, you want some water?"

Lio opened his eyes and made the effort to lift his head enough to get a look at the proffered paper cup. He considered whether it was worth the potential embarrassment should he fail utterly at drinking from it. He didn't feel particularly thirsty, though he suspected that was because of the Flames rather than his human preferences. Logically, water was probably a good idea.

"Yes," he tried.

His voice was barely audible, but the water bearer was close enough to make it out and their face lit up with that same smile. They helped Lio sit up a bit more again, braced against their chest, before bringing the cup to his lips and tilting carefully. He swallowed a little, then felt a cough rising in his throat.

"Easy...," the stranger said. "More?"

Lio attempted a small nod, which apparently was noticed, because he was offered the cup again. He drank a little more, then raised his hand to indicate 'enough'. The cup was withdrawn and placed on a table beside the bed. His protector was paying attention at least. Lio licked his lips. Water was good.

"You feeling up to talking now?"

"Yes," Lio said. His voice still sounded like shifting ash, but he would do his best.

"My name's Gal-o Thy-mos, pronouns he/him." He literally pointed at himself, as though the point needed underlining. Lio tried to raise an eyebrow in response, but he wasn't sure if he actually succeeded or not. "Can you tell me your name and pronouns?"

Lio took a breath. He could try.

"Lio. Lio Fotia." His voice was terribly quiet, but he was getting the words out. "He/him."

"Same! We got the same pronouns," Galo said, sounding unnecessarily excited about such an insignificant detail. He smiled brightly and, despite himself, Lio felt a similar expression tugging at his lips in response.

-

Galo called the rest of the crew to the medbay. They all seemed pleased to see Lio awake and a bit more with it. A man who introduced himself as Remi checked his vitals and ran a few basic tests, before officially logging the fact that Lio was basically fine. Galo was chattering throughout, but Lio had started to feel weary again, so he kept silent.

Having done his due diligence, Remi handed over to his superior. The captain was a tall man, blond and tan. A neatly groomed moustache covered most of his mouth and his eyes were hidden behind a pair of sunglasses with mirrored lenses, making it difficult to read his expression as anything but neutral. He pulled up a stool and sat down beside the bed. Lio felt a bit vulnerable, still huddled in bed, propped up against Galo's chest. There were two ways this could go, and one of them was decidedly _not good_.

"I'm Captain Ignis Ex of Burning Rescue Space Division. You're currently on board Burning Rescue vessel BREN03."

Lio winced. Burning Rescue. That explained the formalities; just standard practice for emergency services. At least it wasn't Freeze Force, though that had already been readily apparent. No self-respecting Freeze Force officer would have allowed one of the Burnish to use them as a pillow.

"You were exposed to open space, as well as low oxygen and low temperatures, for an unknown amount of time. We rescued you from a Dove class shuttlecraft," Ignis continued. "It was badly damaged. The cockpit was almost completely destroyed by some kind of explosion, from the looks of it. Based on what we could see, we suspected a Burnish attack. But while you were out you said a few things that suggested we might need to rethink that assessment."

Lio's mouth went dry. He'd been talking in his sleep? It wasn't unheard of. Sometimes when the Flames were running the show, they'd forget how humans worked, resulting in awkward movements or random speech. If they'd tried to refer to his unconscious mind for guidance, then they could easily have pulled out some revealing details.

But they'd trusted Galo. Lio had picked up on that. Waking up in a strange bed with a strange person might well have been cause for panic, even in his exhausted state, but instead he'd felt calm and he suspected the Flames were responsible for that. When push came to shove, Lio was inclined to trust his Flames. So, he would talk.

"It was an accident," he said, watching Ignis closely for any sign of emotion. "Someone... someone lost control."

She had been just a kid, maybe 15 or 16, new to the Flames. Under normal circumstances, they would not have allowed anyone under the age of 20 to host Flames. It was difficult enough when you were that young figuring out your own body, without having a bunch of other sentient beings living inside you. The girl's parents had wanted her to be able to defend herself, but there hadn't been time to complete the full ritual and she had had no time to adjust before they were moving again. She'd been scared, pushed to the brink.

"Everyone on board was Burnish?" Ignis asked.

Lio took in a breath then sighed it out through his nose. "Yes."

"Very small shuttle for you to be heading out into deep space in."

Lio smirked, humourless. "Well, it certainly wasn't my first choice, but we had to leave in a bit of a hurry."

Ignis nodded, understanding. "We were able to rescue exactly 30 people from the shuttle, plus you. However, we only have enough stasis pods on board this ship for 30 rescued passengers, so Galo here had to warm you up the old-fashioned way."

Lio blinked. Well, that explained the bed sharing. Certainly a novel way of going about things, but it seemed to have been effective, since he had survived along with at least some of his Flames.

"It's going to take us a while to get back to Promearth's orbit," Ignis continued in the same calm, even tone. "So, make yourself comfortable, get some rest. If you need anything, just ask the team."

"And what happens then? Once we get back to Promearth?"

"Well, assuming the stasis pods do what they're supposed to and no-one requires any further medical attention, you and your fellow passengers will be able to go on your way."

There was always the possibility that he could be lying, Lio realised, but all the evidence, plus his gut, suggested otherwise. These people had gone to a lot of trouble to keep him alive and none of them were acting like they were scared of him. He just hoped, for the sake of all the Burnish on board, that he was right about this. 

-

Some time later, after his teammates had all left to return to their various duties, Galo rather reluctantly confessed that he needed to use the bathroom. Lio started trying to move over a bit, out of his way, but then he realised Galo wasn't actually getting up. He looked... sort of nervous.

"What's wrong?" Lio asked.

"Well, normally I'd call Aina to come and take over from me," Galo said, glancing towards the medbay doors, then back at Lio. "But I guess... I guess you're okay now if I leave you for a minute?"

"I'm sure I'll be fine," Lio assured him.

Galo gave him an affirmative nod before slipping off the bed, carefully covering Lio back up with the sheets again. Lio watched him go, amused. He wondered how long they'd been in the bed for. Long enough for there to be a 'normally' in Galo's mind, which suggested quite a while. Lio made a mental note to ask him when he returned.

The medbay doors _shushed_ open again, pulling him from his thoughts. It was Ignis. He gave Lio a quick nod in greeting, then headed across the room to one of the cabinets on the far wall. After a brief search, he pulled some small container off the top shelf, glancing down at it briefly to check that it was the right one.

"Can I ask you a question?" Lio said.

"Yes?" Ignis closed the cabinet and slipped the container into the pocket of his red jacket before turning to face him.

"Why him? Why did you assign Galo to look after me?"

"To keep him out of trouble," Ignis answered easily. "He's not used to spending a lot of time out here yet. Thought it might help teach him a little patience."

Lio nodded, amused again. "I see."

"And he was the one that pulled you out of the shuttle - against orders, I might add - before it completely exploded, so I figured you might as well be his responsibility."

That gave Lio pause. So, Galo had effectively saved his life twice over. He scoffed lightly. No wonder the Flames were so keen on this guy.

"Thank you," he said to Ignis, who simply gave him a curt nod in return, before departing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Promearth is supposed to be pronounced 'Prome-Earth'. The star at the centre of this solar system is called Promesun, as in 'Prome-Sun'.
> 
> 2) The name of the ship, BREN03, stands for Burning Rescue Engine 03, as in a fire engine.
> 
> If you like what you've read so far, please leave a comment and let me know. It's greatly appreciated.


	3. It was hard to make this simple plan work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _At this point, Galo wasn't sure how to proceed. Sure, he was a trained EMT, but he didn't know the first thing about after care. Thankfully, Lio saved him from having to work it out by making a request. He asked Galo to take him to the showers._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter ended up taking me a lot longer and being a lot more difficult to write than I was expecting. Really hope you all enjoy reading it!

Remi's advice was for Lio to stay in the medbay until the end of the day and then overnight, just as a precaution, but after that he was free to go. So the next morning, Galo got out of bed and then waited while Lio tentatively lowered his feet to the floor. Galo had thought that he seemed a lot stronger, but when he tried to stand, Lio's legs gave way and Galo had to quickly catch him. He guessed it was to be expected when Lio hadn't used his legs in so long. He was probably just rusty.

At this point, Galo wasn't sure how to proceed. Sure, he was a trained EMT, but he didn't know the first thing about after care. Thankfully, Lio saved him from having to work it out by making a request. He asked Galo to take him to the showers. That made perfect sense - of course he'd want a shower after spending all that time in bed! Not that he smelt bad or anything. Galo had actually been surprised that Lio hadn't ended up being more stinky. Maybe it was a Burnish thing? Or maybe he just had some really long-lasting deodorant?

Despite his unsteadiness, Lio didn't seem to find walking too tiring or anything. With Galo's arm around him for support, he managed the few steps to the nearby showers without too much trouble and once there he gently pulled Galo's hand away so that he could take the last few steps on his own. Then he started stripping off the medical gown he was wearing.

Galo quickly turned around. "I'll go get you some towels!"

"I need you to stay."

Galo stopped in his tracks. Maybe Lio needed him to support him while he showered? He turned back around and saw that Lio had clambered into one of the shower cubicles. Bracing his hands against the sides, he carefully lowered himself into a sitting position facing Galo, crossing his legs at the ankle.

"I need you to switch the water on if I lose control and the fire gets too large," he said, his eyes locking onto Galo's. "Can you do that?"

"Uh, yeah! Of course!" Galo responded, slightly flustered. Then he realised what Lio had said. "Wait! What fire? What d'you mean 'if you lose control'?!" Visions of the half-exploded shuttle were flashing through his mind.

"I need to meditate," Lio replied calmly. "It will help me heal faster."

Galo had tried meditation once. He wasn't very good at it. How were you supposed to clear your mind of all thoughts when there was so much going on around you? But anyway, he was _sure_ it hadn't involved any fires. That was the sort of thing he would definitely have remembered.

"But... what does that have to do with a fire?"

Lio sighed. "In order for me to heal faster, I need to go into a deep meditative state. I'll be giving the Flames - the aliens that I'm hosting - full control over my body, so I won't be able to consciously control how much I burn. But if it gets out of hand, you can turn on the water and douse the fire. This is the safest way, I think, to do it on board the ship."

Galo just stared at him. He had no idea what to say.

"Can you do that?" Lio repeated. "Please?"

"Yeah," Galo answered dumbly.

"Thank you."

Galo stepped up to stand beside the shower cubicle, close enough that he could reach around and turn on the spray. Lio closed his eyes, settling into his seat a little more, resting his hands loosely on top of his knees. He took a couple of deep breaths, expanding his chest, and then he began to speak, quietly but clearly.

" _Mahari yuware gaaie sabanare, amare dirahi jumagi ganashara. Mahari yuware gaaie sabanare, amare dirahi jumagi ganashara._ "

He kept repeating the same words, calmly and steadily. It wasn't any language that Galo recognised. Maybe it was one of those Old Earth languages that nobody spoke anymore? Or maybe it was some kind of Burnish language that only Burnish spoke? There was almost like a rhythm to the words as Lio repeated them on a loop, like it was some kind of chant. Galo found himself sort of hypnotised, forgetting everything else around him as he focused only on Lio's voice.

Gradually Lio trailed off, the words becoming quieter and starting to slur together as his body became absolutely still. Eventually he fell silent. Even his breathing had practically stopped. Galo waited, not sure if this was supposed to happen or if he should do something...?

Then Lio burst into flames.

It was so sudden that it made Galo jump and he caught his arm on the wall at the edge of the shower cubicle, scraping the skin. He'd never been this close to a fire before without doing something about it. It was brighter than he'd expected. Burnish fire was different from regular fire, because there were more colours - pink and blue and green as well as red and yellow and orange. It was... actually kinda pretty, in a way.

What? No! He shook his head roughly. That was stupid. How could a fire be pretty? That was the kind of thinking that made people turn Burnish-

Galo stopped, looking up again at Lio. He didn't seem like a bad guy. He wasn't going around setting fire to things. And from the way he talked, he sounded really smart, like a teacher. He wasn't at all what Galo had expected one of the Burnish to be like, not like the ones he'd seen video footage of during his training. Lio wasn't some mindless fire junkie, he was... nice.

The flames were growing higher, just as Lio had warned, the fire expanding to fill the shower cubicle. Galo could feel the heat rolling off of it. In the centre, Lio remained completely still, like he'd fallen asleep sitting up. Again, Galo wasn't sure what to do. How big was the fire supposed to get? How long should he wait before he turned the shower on? He wished he'd asked Lio before he'd started his meditation...

But then, as swiftly as they had grown, the flames began to steadily die down, shrinking back around Lio's body. Finally, they disappeared entirely and Galo relaxed. After a few moments, Lio slowly opened his eyes.

He got to his feet without even using his hands, stretching lazily. He stepped out of the cubicle easily and stood there, hands on hips. He looked different, lighter somehow. His hair seemed softer and there was a healthy colour to his previously pale skin.

"So..." he said, meeting Galo's eyes and offering him a little smile, "I'm going to need some clothes."

-

The Burning Rescue team had actually given some thought to this already while Lio was unconscious. They didn't have a lot of spare clothes on board, except from underwear in just about every size, which was required by Burning Rescue regulation standards. Aside from the medical gowns and pyjamas in the medbay, it was pretty much just their uniforms and personal stuff.

There wasn't really anything that fit Lio's size and shape exactly, so they'd just gone with the closest they could find, which turned out to be some things of Lucia's. There were some loose black pants, which seemed to fit well enough when secured with the flip top buckle belt that Lucia also used when she wore them. And then there was a t-shirt, also black, with full length sleeves. Lio raised an eyebrow when he saw what was printed on the front.

"'In Flames'?"

Galo shrugged. "Lucia said it was an Old Earth band?"

Lio grinned. "I like it."

The shirt didn't fit perfectly, but Galo thought it looked pretty good all the same.

"So," Lio asked next, "what time do you guys usually have breakfast?"

Galo had completely forgotten about breakfast! He usually had it as soon as he got up. Since it was the most important meal of the day, he figured it couldn't wait any longer than that. He took Lio straight to the kitchen.

"I'm so glad you reminded me!" he said as he opened the fridge.

"No problem," Lio laughed. "I'm actually kind of starving now. Is it okay to just help myself or is there anything I shouldn't touch?"

Galo looked up to see him checking out the contents of one of the cupboards.

"So, you _do_ eat?"

Lio let the cupboard door swing shut, banging against the frame loudly. "What?"

"The Burnish, I mean. You guys still need to eat?"

Lio glared at him, clearly angry. "Why wouldn't we need to eat?"

Galo held up his hands in surrender and quickly tried to explain himself: "I just wasn't sure if Burnish still did that or not?"

Lio tipped his head back and let out an angry huff at the ceiling. "We're still _human_ , Galo. Of course we need to eat!" He turned to look at him. "Why would you even think that we wouldn't?"

Galo immediately felt bad. He hadn't meant to upset Lio! He just didn't know how being Burnish worked exactly. It seemed like some things were different, but not everything.

"Well, it's just that you didn't need to use the bathroom for more than two days while you were asleep."

"Oh." Lio looked down at the floor and then straight ahead at the wall. "Okay, yes, that... is a thing," he admitted. "I can go longer without food or water, with the help of the Flames, in exceptional circumstances. But I'd still need to eat - and everything else that comes after - eventually."

Okay, that kinda made sense, Galo figured. Then he thought of something else he'd been wondering about.

"Where do they go?" he asked.

Lio stared at him blankly. "Where do who go?"

"The Flames, in your body?" Galo said. "Are they in your belly?"

"Okay, seriously!" Lio snapped in frustration. "No more Burnish questions until I've had some breakfast!"

-

After breakfast, Galo took Lio on a tour of the rest of the ship. It was a lot more interesting when you were telling somebody else about it, he found. There were things that he'd kind of just forgotten were there, because he was so used to seeing them every day. Lio got his own back for all the Burnish questions by asking lots of questions of his own - about Varys' collection of Old Earth calendars that covered one wall in the lounge, about the drawings of horses stuck to the fridge that Ignis' daughter had done, and the one hallway that Lucia had decorated with strings of fairy lights in the shape of constellations. Although, for some reason none of the lights were on when they walked through.

Galo finished up the tour by showing Lio his own quarters. They were the smallest on the ship, because he was the newest member of the team. Aina said they would think about swapping once he'd gotten a few more years under his belt. But Galo didn't mind too much. It was comfortable enough.

Lio sat down on the bed, hands by his sides, taking it all in. His gaze lighted on the picture stuck to the opposite wall.

"Yeah, I got my picture taken with President Foresight," Galo said proudly. "And he even signed it for me too!" He looked over at the photo. "He's my hero, y'know? What he did was so inspiring."

But when he looked back at Lio, his expression was sour.

Galo frowned. "What's up?"

Lio took a breath and seemed to gather himself up, kinda like a cat arching and stretching. He looked up at Galo and he looked sorta... nervous?

"Could I sleep here tonight?" he asked. "It's just... we're both used to sharing a bed by now, right? So it would maybe make more sense than me taking over the lounge."

Galo hadn't expected that. Not that he'd been expecting anything, really. He hadn't actually thought about it at all yet, but... Wait, was Lio blushing?

"Sure!" he said quickly. "I mean, if you want to, I don't mind." He shot Lio a big reassuring smile and he smiled back, relaxing.

"Thanks," he said.

-

They headed back to the lounge so that Lio could relax while Galo did his usual chores around the ship. Remi was sitting in one of the comfy chairs, with a laptop computer balanced on his legs.

"You can use the tablets," Galo said, seeing Lio eyeing the stuff spread out on the table in the middle of the couches and chairs.

"You don't have any personal stuff on them?" Lio asked.

"We do," Remi answered for Galo, without looking up, "but we each have our own account, so you won't be able to see anything personal without logging in at least once."

"Ah, okay. Thanks." Lio sat down on a couch and started to reach for the nearest tablet, then stopped when he caught sight of something else. Galo hesitated, wondering if he was going to ask something. At their silence, Remi peered over the top of his laptop.

"Go ahead if you wanna take a look," he said, following Lio's gaze.

Galo scanned the table, trying to guess what he was talking about.

"Really?" Lio blinked in surprise. "Are you sure? This is a real book, right?"

Remi nodded as Lio carefully picked it up. "It is. You know Old Earth French?"

"A little," Lio said, carefully running his fingers along the spine of the book.

"Well, feel free to borrow it."

Lio seemed surprised. "Are you sure?" he asked again. "I'd feel bad if it got damaged..."

Remi waved a hand dismissively. "No, it's fine. It's had a fair amount of use already. It's there to be read, not to look pretty."

Lio's face lit up. "Thank you. That's very kind of you." He started gingerly flicking through the pages and scanning the text.

"Actually, if you really want to thank me, I could use your help with something?"

"Of course." Lio put the book down carefully and looked up. "What is it?"

"The technical term is 'paperwork'," Remi replied grimly. "Although why they still call it that when it hasn't been on paper for decades, I don't know."

"How can I help?"

"I just need you to confirm whether or not you consent to your personal details being saved in my report about the rescue op for your shuttle. Headquarters likes to keep data about the people we rescue - things like name, gender, ethnicity - for analysis." He fixed Lio with a meaningful look. "We would need to get your consent to store data like that."

"But I don't have to give it?" Lio asked hesitantly.

"No, it's entirely optional."

"Then... I don't think I will," Lio said carefully.

Remi smiled brightly. "Great! Thank you, that means I can skip over that whole section."

"What about the others?" Lio asked. "I assume you'll need to ask them when they wake up?"

"No, unless _all_ passengers give their consent, we can't log anything. Otherwise the data would be considered incomplete."

"I see," Lio smiled knowingly.

Galo had no idea what had just happened, but both Lio and Remi seemed happy about it, so he figured it must be a good thing. Picking up the book again, Lio pulled his legs up under him, settling on the couch. Satisfied that he seemed comfortable, Galo headed off to the rec room.

-

Galo was surprised by how fast the rest of the day went by. In space they used the Old Earth 24-hour clock instead of normal Promearth time, so the days were technically shorter, but they always felt longer when Galo was bored. The days while Lio had been asleep had seemed to last forever at the time, while he had nothing to do but stay in bed watching videos and playing games on a tablet. Today it felt like he'd only had just enough time to get everything done before it was time to call it a night again.

Lio was already there waiting for him when he got back to his quarters. He was sitting cross-legged on the bed, still studying the book that Remi had given him. Stripped down to just the black underwear, he looked kind of small and pale.

"You wanna borrow a shirt?"

"Oh," Lio looked up. "Yes, thank you. So long as you don't need it?"

"Nah," Galo said, snagging his black uniform t-shirt from where it was draped over the chair. He never wore it himself, especially not to sleep in. It was always kinda warm on the ship because the air con never seemed to work properly, so Galo and Lucia generally didn't bother wearing shirts at all. The others mostly wore tank tops, just to keep things more professional. Remi was the only one Galo had ever seen wear his full uniform while they were on the ship.

Lio put the book on the bedside table and stood to pull the shirt over his head. It was way too big, but it just about stayed on, hanging from one shoulder. He glanced back at the bed and then looked at Galo.

"Uh, you go first?"

Galo nodded, quickly tugging off his pants and discarding them on the floor, then moving around Lio to get into bed. Lio followed, lying down with his back to Galo so that they could spoon. Galo went to put an arm around him, then stopped. Was that okay now? He hadn't really thought about it before, while Lio was asleep, but now he hesitated. Would it be weird now that Lio was awake? Was it weird if he _didn't_ do it? What if he was making Lio uncomfortable by not doing it?

Lio shifted a little, trying to get comfortable. He sighed and Galo froze. Carefully, Lio rolled over to face him. The lights were dimming automatically, but Galo could just make out his face.

"Sorry," he said. "I thought this would be easier."

"Me too," Galo admitted. Sharing his bed was different from sharing one in the medbay. He was suddenly really aware of Lio's presence and the fact that they didn't really know each other all that well. "You want me to go and sleep in the lounge? You can have my bed..."

"No. No, it's okay," Lio said. Galo lay still, not sure what to do. Lio looked like maybe he was thinking. After a moment he reached out, gently pushing a hand against Galo's chest. "Roll over," he said.

Galo did as he was told, rolling onto his back, and then Lio snuggled closer, carefully resting his head on Galo's chest. After a moment's hesitation, Galo drew his arm around him. Yeah, that felt better. He closed his eyes, ready for sleep.

-

Galo woke to his alarm vibrating insistently on his wrist. Lio lifted his head up to look at him. He looked sleepy and his hair was kinda squashed on one side where he'd been sleeping. It was cute and Galo smiled.

"'Sokay, you don't have to get up. You can just stay here if you want."

Lio _hmmed_ his thanks, scooting over a little so that Galo could climb over him to get out of bed. When he turned around, he saw that Lio had snuggled up to his pillow. The sight made him feel warm in his chest and his face. He liked that Lio found him comforting.

He started getting dressed, but then Ignis' voice came booming over the ship's comms system.

" _Everyone report to the cockpit. Lio too._ "

Galo exchanged a look with Lio, who had sat straight up. What was going on?

As soon as they were both dressed they hurried to the cockpit. Lucia and Aina were sitting in the two pilot's chairs, spun round to face back into the room. The others were standing in a loose circle, which Galo and Lio joined.

"As you may recall," Remi began, "thanks to our friends at Freeze _Farce_ , we sustained some damage to our engines before we came out here, which prompted us to start our routine patrol a little earlier than scheduled."

They had all been keen to put as much distance as possible between them and Freeze Force, as quickly as possible. It was all because of this one guy Vulcan, who was always getting in their way because of some long-standing beef that he had with Ignis. He'd made some excuse about how he _thought_ he'd detected Burnish signals on board their ship, but Galo figured he'd probably been lying about that.

"Friendly fire, my ass," Aina muttered under her breath.

"We managed to repair most of the engine damage," Varys continued, "but now we got another problem." He turned to Lucia.

"One of the main fuel cells got hit and most of the fuel leaked out. Which wasn't a problem at first, because we _do_ have a second one, _but_ after a rescue op and adding 30 new passengers in pods..." She screwed up her face. "The good news is, we still have enough fuel left to keep us alive and get us _most_ of the way back to Promearth."

"What's the bad news?" Aina immediately asked.

"The bad news is once we've gotten as far as we can go, we're gonna need to call for help. And we won't have a choice about who answers."

"But... someone'll help us, right?" Galo said, confused.

"Yeah, but it might not be someone we _want_ help from, Galo," Lucia responded. "Especially considering our passengers."

Galo frowned.

"What do you think Freeze Force might do if they detect a _real_ Burnish signal this time?" Remi prompted.

Galo's eyes widened in alarm. He hadn't thought about that. The Burnish on board could be in a lot of danger if Freeze Force found out that they were there!

"Is there anything we can do?" Aina asked.

"Not really," Lucia said. "Unless we can magic a new fuel cell outta somewhere."

To Galo's great surprise, Lio spoke up: "What if it could be replenished? Could the container be repaired and then refilled?"

"Yeah, sure, in theory," Varys said. "I already did the repairs, to try and hold onto what fuel was left. But we're not gonna be able to find any more way out here. We're still a long way from Promearth right now."

"Could I use my fire to fill in for the rest?" Lio asked. "If I ignite with enough force and you can capture it inside the fuel cell, would that work?"

Varys exchanged a look with Lucia. She shrugged. 

"Maybe. _But_ the fuel cell would have to have been injected already before you did it and then the only way to access it would be to go in from outside the ship. To generate enough power, I'm guessing you'd be burning hot enough to incinerate a space suit?"

"You only just recovered from one accidental space walk," Varys said. "We don't wanna send you on another one."

Galo agreed. It made no sense for Lio to put himself in danger _again_. And maybe they wouldn't run into Freeze Force this time anyway. It could be anyone who came to help them. Maybe it would even be more Burnish!

But Lio wouldn't drop it. "Can you at least confirm whether it would work? Could you run a simulation or something?"

"Yeah, we can do that." Lucia nodded.

Galo shot her a horrified look. "But there's not point, right? 'Cause he's not gonna do it! It's too dangerous."

"Last time I was exposed to space, it was unexpected," Lio insisted. "This time we'll be prepared. You can be there to catch me the moment I'm out."

"But..." Galo was torn. Of course he would be there to catch Lio. Rescuing people was what he did! But people didn't usually put themselves in danger on purpose. How could he just stand back and let his new friend do that?

Lio turned to Ignis. "At least let them run some simulations. I won't even entertain the idea unless we have a high chance of success. But if I can help your people _and_ mine, I think it's worth the risk."

They all waited with bated breath while Ignis considered.

"If you were a member of my team, I wouldn't authorise you to do this," he finally said to Lio, whose shoulders immediately sagged in defeat. "Burning Rescue can't accept any responsibility for any risks you take independently as an individual."

Lio looked up again quickly. "So...?"

"So, run some simulations with Lucia. Get me some numbers and then we'll talk."

Lio immediately brightened. "Thank you."

-

Galo wasn't happy. He'd tried to argue with Ignis that it was far too dangerous for Lio to do this, to the amusement of his teammates. Remi had said that was hypocritical coming from him, since he was usually the one rushing blindly into danger. Galo didn't care. He would be hypocritical if it meant keeping Lio safe! But apparently the numbers were on Lio's side and Ignis insisted that he had the right to do whatever was best for his people.

So now here they were, moving along the left side of the ship. They were only using one tether line, attached to Galo's suit, because anything attached to Lio was sure to be damaged when he ignited, so Galo was literally holding onto him to keep him from floating away. Lio was wearing one of their spare space suits. It was kinda lame, nothing like as cool as Galo's own suit, and didn't suit Lio at all, but Lucia said it didn't matter since it was gonna end being incinerated anyway.

They were coming up on the engine now. Galo reached out to grab onto the edge of one of the tubes, then guided Lio across his body to do the same. Lio then swung himself round so that he could crawl into the tube. The engines were completely shut off to make it safe, so it was dark inside. Lio braced himself against the inside of the tube and turned to look back at Galo.

" _I'll be fine_ ," he said through the radio. " _You'll catch me as soon as I come out. I'll only be exposed for a few moments._ "

"Just be careful, okay?" Galo responded. He hoped Lio could see his disapproving face through that crappy helmet.

" _I will._ " Lio gave him a thumbs up, then turned and disappeared into the darkness.

Galo moved away, back down the side of the ship. He didn't wanna be at the mouth of the tube when the engine fired.

" _Is he in?_ " Lucia asked.

"Yeah. I'm clear too."

" _Varys?_ "

" _Ready!_ "

Lio couldn't check in anymore because the shielding around the engine blocked the signal from his helmet, so they'd agreed he would wait ten minutes before starting the fire.

It felt like the longest ten minutes of Galo's life.

" _Okay, Galo_ ," Lucia finally called to him, " _let us know when you see something._ "

He felt the vibration through the ship before he actually saw anything. There was a pause and then a massive flare erupted out of the engine tube, lighting up the sky.

"Something just happened!" he called.

" _Yeah, looks like he did it_ ," Varys called back. " _Systems are definitely picking up something happening._ "

Galo waited, anxiously tugging on his tether cable. He wasn't sure exactly when Lio was supposed to come out. How long should he wait? What if something had happened and Lio was hurt?

Then he spotted a body emerging from the tube, floating out into space. Galo made a beeline for it, as fast as he could. He gathered Lio up in his arms, clutching him close. He was out cold, literally. The suit was completely gone and the clothes he'd had on underneath had mostly burned away, leaving only tatters.

"Aina, pull me in!" Galo yelled. "Now!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) The words that Lio uses for his meditation are of course lyrics by Superfly, from 'Kakusei', Lio's theme from the movie. They are made-up nonsense words with no meaning.
> 
> As always, if you like this chapter, please comment and let me know your thoughts on it! Especially since I had such a hard time writing this one, it would be great to get some feedback on it.


	4. Indescribable and that's what makes it you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"Seems pretty clear we can't take those people back to Promearth anyway," Meis said. "Too_ cold _right now."_
> 
> _"Something's changed," Lio acknowledged unhappily._
> 
> _"Yeah, I've been hearing the same thing all over," Gueira said. "Avoiding getting caught used to be a piece of cake, but Freeze Force are literally hunting us now!"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of an in between sort of chapter, but hope everyone enjoys this one!

Lio awakened in Galo's arms. It was starting to become a bit of a habit, he thought. He was right back where he'd started, in the medbay, the sounds and smells all familiar now. He briefly debated just lying still and resting for a few moments longer, but he didn't know how long he'd been unconscious, so decided that he should probably let someone know that he was awake.

"Fancy meeting you here," he said, looking up at Galo, unable to keep the amused smile off his face. His voice came out a little wobbly, but nowhere near as bad as it had been when he first woke up there.

The immediate response was a rib-crushing hug, as Galo's arms tightened around him and squeezed until he was breathless. "You're alive!"

"I'm okay! I'm okay!" Lio wheezed. "Just... breathing would be nice?"

Galo released him, big hands moving to clutch his shoulders, and then Lio caught sight of his expression. He was taken aback by the intensity of emotion that he saw there.

"No more blasting yourself into space!" Galo said, eyes blazing.

Lio bit his lip. He couldn't make that promise, though he certainly wasn't in any _rush_ to risk his life again. At his silence and uncertain expression, Galo's intensity seemed to melt a little.

"I was worried," he said more quietly.

"It's okay," Lio assured him. "You saved me."

"Yeah!" Galo grinned, but continued to study his face, the concern not quite gone from his eyes.

"So, did it work?" Lio asked.

"Huh?" Galo stared at him blankly.

"The mission? Did it refuel the ship?"

"Oh," Galo said, like it was the furthest thing from his mind. "Yeah, we're all good now."

Lio laughed in relief; it had been worth the risk and the sacrifice of a few more of his Flames. The Burning Rescue team had given him no reason to doubt that they trusted him, but Lio knew that actions spoke louder than words. With this he had hopefully proved beyond a doubt that they were on the same side, and that it could be to their mutual benefit if they worked with the Burnish.

Also, the truth was, he had enjoyed it. Right before he'd lost consciousness, when he'd been burning so hot that he'd lost all sense of self-preservation, it had felt absolutely euphoric. It was the purest feeling when he burned in concert with the Flames, neither consciousness overpowering the other, but all completely in sync.

He had needed to keep the fire on a tight leash for the past couple of weeks, travelling to Promearth, trying to avoid detection, and then being in space again where it could potentially be dangerous. It wasn't a problem, as the Flames could happily burn on their own as much as they needed to, inside him, but he missed it. The taste of freedom he'd just had had really driven it home. The sooner he was back on solid ground and could give into the urge, the better.

-

Remi really wanted him to remain in the medbay for the remainder of the day and overnight once again, but Lio _insisted_ that he would be just as comfortable resting in the lounge, which would also leave Galo free to do other things.

He had been enjoying the book that Remi had lent him. When he'd said he knew 'a little' French, he had meant a _very_ little. The book was more like a puzzle for him to solve than actual reading material, but he was enjoying trying to work it out. Despite the Foresight government's attempts to keep things tightly controlled, people still clung to the past. In the Burnish community, where they were free from regulation, there was a thriving diversity of language. So Lio had picked up enough pieces here and there to be able to take on the challenge of figuring out this text.

He was just starting to get engrossed when he sensed someone hovering over him. Looking up from the book, he found Aina looking apologetic.

"How're you feeling?" she asked.

"Good, thank you." Lio offered her a reassuring smile to let her know he was up to being bothered. "How can I help?"

Aina explained that it would soon be time to open up the stasis pods and wake up their sleeping passengers. What she needed Lio's help with was putting names to the faces of the other Burnish. When they first woke up, she said, most people immediately asked after their loved ones, so if she could make a note of who was who then the team would be in a position to reassure people right away, which would hopefully make the whole experience much easier for them.

What went unspoken, of course, was that she also thought it would make it safer for the Burning Rescue team. Lio could understand why she was worried, even though he knew she didn't need to be. There was no danger that any of the Burnish would 'fire up' upon waking, but considering what had happened to the shuttle, he could hardly blame Burning Rescue for being concerned.

"I'm amazed you can remember all these names!" Aina said, after they'd added personal details to about half of the pods.

"I've been told that I have a very good memory," Lio responded. It certainly came in handy for these sorts of situations, memorising the details of a plan, including places and names, so he could shepherd groups of Burnish to safety. It would be good to see these people awake again.

-

That evening the team all ate together in the mess hall, as a sort of low-key celebration of their success. For Lio it felt strange to be breaking bread with regular humans like that. The absence of a fire in the middle of the group was notable. But the crew still chatted openly with him, seemingly without fear, as though he were one of their own. Aina regaled them all with tales of some of Galo's less heroic exploits, much to his frustration as he pouted and whined, loudly trying to correct her.

They were all looking forward to getting home, not least because it would mean some better food. No matter where it started out, the conversation always seemed to keep drifting back to people's favourite dishes. At this point they were down to standard rations, which were plentiful but not particularly appetising. Still, Galo seemed to manage to eat more than his fill. Everyone helped to clear up afterwards, except Lio, who was forbidden from lifting a finger.

When he was done, Galo came over. He stretched his arms up above his head, trying to act casual as he asked, "You wanna sleep in my quarters again tonight?"

His face lit up when Lio said yes, and the Flames inside him flared in response. He was enjoying this unexpected intimacy with his rescuer, although logically he continued to question it. It wasn't exactly usual behaviour for him, but it wasn't without precedent either. Despite being biologically asexual, the Flames were social creatures, and Lio couldn't deny that they had changed him in that respect.

More and more lately, he'd been allowing instinct to lead the way. Safety and warmth took precedence over everything else with a clarity that had never existed before he became Burnish. Galo had made no attempt to take advantage of him. He could certainly be annoying at times, but he never made Lio feel unsafe. It was nice to be able to trust someone, a stranger, in the way that he could the other Burnish.

-

The next morning Aina came to fetch them both. Today was the day Lio had been waiting for, the day they could finally wake the others up. It would only be another day, maybe two, before they reached Promearth's orbit and they had agreed that the rest of the Burnish should be awake when they got there.

They were well-prepared, thanks to the information Lio had given Aina, and he was happy that his presence meant that everyone would have at least one familiar face to wake up to. He and Aina had worked out a rough order to do things in, based on groups that had been travelling together and families. It was all going to take a while, but they had the time.

First up, of course, were Lio's own nearest and dearest, Gueira and Meis. It was strange to see them like this, under glass, still and preserved. The pods were a rather impressive, all-purpose bit of equipment, Lio had learned. They could warm up bodies after being exposed to space, heal injuries, and keep their occupants sedated. They even preserved clothing, which was fortunate, because he couldn't see how they would have managed otherwise with the limited supplies on the ship. He was coming to understand a lot more about just how Burning Rescue managed to do the job they did.

"You ready?" Aina said.

Lio nodded. He stole a quick glance over his shoulder at Galo, standing behind him, before returning his focus to the pod. "Do it."

"All right..." Aina began keying in the wake-up sequence on the pod. There were a couple of beeps and then Lio watched as one by one, the lights in the strip along the side of the pod changed colour from orange to green. He took in a deep breath, feeling a little anxiety swirling in the pit of his stomach despite himself.

When the sequence was complete, the pod cover opened up automatically. There was a long, tense moment before Gueira's eyelashes fluttered and his eyes slowly opened. Lio leaned over the side of the pod to make sure he was in the line of sight.

"Lio..." Gueira murmured woozily.

"Hey," Lio responded, a smile spreading across his face as his chest flooded with relief.

Gueira blinked at his surroundings, disorientated, then looked back at Lio.

"Boss? What happened?"

"We're safe," Lio assured him as he slowly sat up. "We lost the shuttle but someone picked us up." He offered a hand to help Gueira climb free of the pod. He was a little unsteady on his feet, but nowhere near the newborn foal that Lio had been after he'd first woken up. Glancing around cautiously, he took in Aina and Galo, and the surrounding pods, and then promptly flung his arms around Lio.

"Fuck, Boss," he muttered, burying his face in Lio's hair.

"I know," Lio agreed, squeezing him back just as hard. "But we made it."

Finally Gueira pulled back, though he continued holding onto Lio's arms as though to hold him in place and stop him from disappearing again.

"Meis?"

"He's here. We just need to wake him up."

Gueira glanced about at the pods surrounding them again, as though registering what they actually meant. Aina was already standing by at Meis' pod and she started the sequence as soon as Lio gave the nod. Gueira watched, still seeming a little suspicious, but alert and ready. When the pod opened, he moved to stand on the opposite side to Lio, so that when Meis opened his eyes, he could see them both. He immediately cracked a smile.

"Huh. Wha' did I miss?"

Gueira reached in to grasp his hand and help him out. Standing beside him, he clutched Meis' face in both hands, grinning happily. Meis scoffed at him, then turned to Lio.

"Boss?"

"I'm good," Lio assured him. "We're safe."

Meis smiled, relieved, and Lio stepped around the pod to embrace him. Meis hugged him back, more gently than Gueira had, but just as warmly. Once he pulled back, he cast his gaze around at the other pods.

"Did we all make it?"

Lio shook his head.

"How many?"

"Four," Lio answered sadly.

Meis sighed, nodding. There was nothing they could do about it now.

"There's a lot I need to catch you up on, but first we need to wake everyone else up." Lio turned to his new friends. "This is Aina, and Galo." He gestured to each of them and they waved. "They're with Burning Rescue. They-"

"Burning Rescue?!" Gueira interrupted, just a little too loud and incredulous.

"They're here to help," Lio assured him. He caught Meis' eye to make sure he was taking this on board too. "They pulled us out of the shuttle before it exploded. We've been on their ship for about a week."

Gueira exchanged a look with Meis, and Lio waited to see if there would be any further questioning. But Meis simply folded his arms over his chest, meeting Lio's eyes again.

"All right," he said. "Let's get to wakin', then."

-

As Lio had anticipated, it took quite a while to get through all of the pods. Although the number of friendly faces who could greet people and explain the situation increased with each pod opened, there were still only two people who could actually do the opening. And Galo kept forgetting the sequence, so in the end Aina needed to be present for most of the awakenings.

The mess hall was the only space large enough for all the awakened passengers to gather in, as Aina explained it was designed to do. Once everyone was reasonably settled, Lio briefly addressed the group. Most of them were more or less up to speed by that point, but he wanted to make certain they were all on the same page and there was no confusion as to what was going on. He also needed to acknowledge those they'd lost. A proper memorial would still have to wait, but he didn't want to seem like he was glossing over the fact that not everyone had made it this far.

After answering a few questions, he left Aina and Galo to do their jobs and took Gueira and Meis aside, into one of the hallways to talk. They had a bit more to discuss. Lio started by filling them in on more of the details of the past week - how he'd been revived without the aid of a pod, what he'd learned about the Burning Rescue team and their altercation with Freeze Force, and how he had helped to refuel the engine.

"We should reach Coyolxauhqui tomorrow," he said, bringing them up to the present.

"The moon?" Gueira queried. Lio nodded.

"I hear it's nice this time of year," Meis quipped.

"Burning Rescue have a base there," Lio continued. "We'll be able to get our bearings and figure out our next move."

"We're not gonna be movin' anywhere fast without pilots," Meis responded dryly.

"Yes, that's a problem," Lio admitted. When they'd set out on their mission, they hadn't been anticipating the need for any space pilots. The parents of the girl who'd died, Helia, had been the only two in the group with any pilot training. Of course, they'd both been in the shuttle's cockpit when it exploded.

"Can't we just... figure it out?" Gueira ventured. "I mean, how hard can it be to fly one of those things?"

Meis joined Lio in fixing him with a scolding look. They weren't going to take any more chances in space. Gueira quickly held up his hands in surrender.

"We'll have time to figure these things out once we reach Coyolxauhqui," Lio said.

"Seems pretty clear we can't take those people back to Promearth anyway," Meis said. "Too _cold_ right now."

"Something's changed," Lio acknowledged unhappily.

"Yeah, I've been hearing the same thing all over," Gueira said. "Avoiding getting caught used to be a piece of cake, but Freeze Force are literally hunting us now!"

"This was supposed to be a clean in-and-out, but things went sideways real fast down there," Meis agreed. "We need to drop these folks off on Mariana, then figure out some kinda evacuation plan."

"It would help if we knew _why_ they were doing this," Lio said. "They were happy to ignore us before, so long as we kept away from the population centres. Something must have prompted these new orders."

"There's rumours," Gueira offered. "Like, maybe they wanna weaponise us?"

"To fight who?" Lio asked. "Foresight's got the whole planet pretty well under his thumb. His only real enemy is-"

"Us," Meis finished for him.

"Yeah, well, he shot first," Gueira groused.

"Whatever it is that's got their panties in a bunch all of a sudden," Meis said grimly, "it's bad news."

"We're lucky Burning Rescue found us when they did," Lio added. "No-one will be looking for us on Coyolxauhqui."

"Still need to be prepared, though," Meis said, eyeing Lio pointedly. "We don't know what might be waiting for us there."

Lio frowned at him. "There won't _be_ anyone there. The place is left empty while the team is away."

"So they say."

Lio narrowed his eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm just saying, it's Burning Rescue. They're really only a step away from Freeze Force. We don't know for sure that we can trust them."

Lio shook his head. "There's no way to be completely certain, I know, but I've seen enough to be as sure as I can be. I told you what happened, what they did for me, what I did for them. They're risking arrest by helping us."

"Still only human, though," Meis responded. "Look, all I'm saying is, when push comes to shove, they're gonna take care of their own first and us second. We gotta keep our eyes open, Boss."

Lio felt bruised. True, Meis hadn't had a chance to get to know the team like he had, but he'd expected his right-hand man to trust his judgement on this.

"We've got your back, Boss," Gueira tried to smooth things over, obviously uncomfortable with the tension between them.

"Always," Meis added, his tone somewhat gentler.

Lio met his eyes, then Gueira's. He had thought he had no reason to doubt Ignis' sincerity when he said he would protect them, but what if he was wrong?

-

Most of the rest of the day was taken up with distributing supplies amongst the Burnish. Lio made sure that everyone else had eaten first before settling down to his own evening meal in a corner of the mess hall. The rations were decidedly unappetising, but he was too hungry and tired at this point for it to matter.

What Meis had said had been weighing on his mind. He'd been replaying all of his interactions with Burning Rescue over and over, trying to figure out if his conclusions about them were right or wrong. Was he being naive? The conversation had left him feeling like he needed to defend his actions somehow, which was stupid because for most of it he hadn't really had much of a choice. If he had been hostile towards Burning Rescue it certainly would not have helped matters. His frustration had quickly turned to irritation. The Flames weren't helping. Anger wasn't really something that they fully understood, but their default answer to _any_ strong emotion was for him to burn. And he wanted to, so badly.

By the time he'd finished his meal, he was desperate to get away and find some distraction.

"Galo said you've been sleeping with him."

Lio looked up sharply. Gueira was standing over him, his face full of indignation. 

"Yes, we've been sharing a bed," Lio responded, bristling. "After our time together in the medbay, we were both comfortable with it, so it made more sense than me taking up space elsewhere on the ship."

It sounded like an excuse, even though it wasn't one. He didn't _need_ one! He could share a bed with whoever he wanted, a fact that Gueira not only well knew but had also agreed was fair. Which didn't stop him from getting jealous, of course. 

"But you'll be sleepin' here tonight, right Boss?" Gueira pressed. "With us."

"Considering the mess hall is already packed, I don't think that would make much sense," Lio responded dryly.

Gueira looked decidedly unhappy. He cast a glance over to where Meis was chatting to some of the others, probably considering whether to call for backup. Lio waited, the spark of an argument ready on the tip of his tongue.

But Gueira relented, with a hastily muttered "Okay, Boss", leaving Lio alone with a pent-up explosion still festering inside him. 

-

Escaping at last to the sanctuary of Galo's quarters, Lio dropped down on the bed and began stripping off his shirt. Even his clothing felt constricting; he needed to breathe. Once the fabric passed over his eyes, Galo came into view, hovering awkwardly in the doorway. He had that look that Lio had quickly learned to recognise as 'about to ask a question' (usually a stupid question), so he tugged his shirt the rest of the way off and waited for it.

"Is Gueira your boyfriend?" Galo finally asked, anxiously rubbing at the back of his neck.

And there it was. Lio sighed so loudly and angrily that he saw Galo flinch.

"No," he said firmly, then realised he should clarify. "We don't use that word."

He knew he was probably being too obtuse for Galo, but he really didn't feel like explaining himself. The underlying implied question in what Galo was asking had re-stoked his anger.

"Oh," Galo said. Unsurprisingly, he didn't seem at all reassured. "I don't think he likes me."

"That's his problem," Lio responded bluntly. "What is it that's actually bothering you?"

"I was just wondering if it was okay for you to sleep here, with me?" Galo asked sheepishly.

"Well, let's see," Lio said, putting on an air of exaggerated thoughtfulness. "Who does it involve? There's you... and me." He looked Galo straight in the eye. "Is it okay with _you_?"

Galo frowned, confused, and clearly a little worried. "Y-yeah. Of course."

"And it's okay with _me_ ," Lio said slowly, like he was explaining to a child. "So, I guess it must be okay, then, right?" He stared Galo down.

"Right." Galo seemed to relax a little, though not completely. Lio sighed again. He very much doubted that he was going to be getting much sleep that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Coyolxauhqui (pronounced Koy-ol-shauw-kee) is the Aztec goddess of the moon. One of the myths about her was that she led a rebellion to try and kill her mother, the earth goddess Coatlicue.
> 
> If you enjoyed this chapter and can spare the time and energy to leave a comment, I'd really appreciate it. Would very much like to know what you think of the story so far!


	5. The parts that won't give out when things get hard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Meis was standing in between the benches, up close to the window, gazing out across Coyolxauhqui's surface to where the top half of Promearth was visible over the horizon. He seemed lost in thought, though not entirely relaxed, his arms folded tightly across his chest. Aina paused, unsure whether to disturb him or not. But after a moment he must've sensed her presence, because he glanced back over his shoulder at her._
> 
> _"A different perspective, huh?" he said, nodding slightly in the direction of the planet._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I think it's fair to say that this year has been tough for everyone, and I'm no exception. However, there is now a glimmer of hope on the horizon for me and, more importantly, I was finally able to finish this chapter! It's a bit longer than the previous ones, as things get a bit more plotty from here on out, and there's a brief change of perspective to get us over the halfway point.
> 
> Hope you all enjoy reading it!

Aina was glad to be home. It felt especially good to have solid ground underneath her feet again. Her current situation felt sort of surreal. If she'd been told a week ago that she would be looking after a group of Burnish, she would not have believed it. But now that it was actually happening, she couldn't imagine how she could have done anything different.

Save for Galo, the Burning Rescue team all scattered as soon as the ship touched down on Coyolxauhqui. Varys said he would be in the garage, seeing if he could rustle up some spare parts from their collection to do some more permanent repairs on the ship. Lucia didn't say where she was going, but Aina assumed her first priority would probably be to wake up Vinny. She had built a tiny stasis pod for the rat, which he stayed in when the team were away and there was no-one around on the base to care for him. Ignis was calling his daughter before he'd even stepped off the ramp. No doubt he'd switch to video too once he reached his quarters. Remi at least took a moment to give Aina a pat on the shoulder and confirm that she had things under control before disappearing off, no doubt to make a call of his own to his fiancée.

Which left Aina and Galo to take care of the Burnish. After getting the group's attention, she lead the way to the guest quarters. Galo seemed to be in his element, acting like a tour guide, pointing out all the different areas of the base as they walked and talking up all the facilities that they had. The base had originally been built as a staging area for the construction on Promearth when humanity had first moved to the system. It had been handed over to Burning Rescue when localised travel through space had started to become common enough for the organisation to need a more permanent presence there. With a team of just six people, they had loads of space to spread out. The site was so vast that even though it was all under glass, some of the spaces felt like they were outdoors.

The guest quarters section had been adapted to match the facilities they had on the BREN03 ship, providing temporary overnight accommodation for up to 30 people. It hadn't had a lot of use, but the team still regularly refreshed things so that it was always ready. The Burnish certainly looked like they appreciated it, judging by their wide eyes and smiles as they started exploring the rooms. After a night spent in the cramped mess hall on the ship, Aina guessed it had to be a relief.

She cast her gaze over the crowds to locate Lio, then waved and beckoned him over. She half expected Gueira and Meis to follow too, but after a quick exchange of looks and nods between the three of them, they let him go alone.

"I figure if I show you where things are, you can just share the info with the others," she said, leading the way to one of the doors just off to the side of the main entryway. Lio followed, looking curious as she pushed open the door. "I don't know if anyone else needs a change at this point, but I figure you could."

Aina stood back, hands on hips, as Lio gazed around in appreciation at the vast walk-in closet.

"We've got every size and enough of 'em to last at least a week without having to wash anything," she added helpfully.

"You're certainly well prepared," Lio commented, looking over all the different labels on the drawers and shelves, until he lighted on something that was presumably in his size.

"You got any family planetside?" Aina asked casually to make small talk while he browsed.

"Oh. Uh... no. Not anymore," Lio answered distractedly as he carefully pulled down a shirt and held it up to inspect it.

"Ah, same as Galo," Aina commented.

Lio looked up. "He doesn't have any family on Promearth?"

"No, his parents never made it off of Old Earth. Galo came over with his grandfather, but he died not long after they arrived."

She'd always felt slightly guilty about that. With her parents' skill-sets and her sister Heris already testing through the roof at a young age, Aina's family had had guaranteed spots in one of the early migration waves. Thanks to Galo, she was keenly aware now that not everyone had been so lucky.

"What about you?" Lio asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"Oh, yeah. I've got my moms and my sister." She smiled, realising too late that she'd wandered into an awkward conversation. "So, um, I'm sure you guys will have no trouble finding what you want, but if you need any help, just give us a call." She pointed to a panel on the wall by the door. "The whole team's listed, so just scroll through and select a name. It'll call straight through to our communicators." She tapped the band on her wrist to show what she meant.

"Got it." Lio nodded. "And thank you. We really appreciate your help."

"Just doing our jobs," Aina said, attempting to shrug it off, though she knew what he meant. She had to keep reminding herself that the people they'd rescued were _Burnish_. They looked so normal, just like regular people, not alien-mind-controlled zombies. She'd always suspected that the stories she'd been told about the Burnish weren't entirely true, but now she was seeing it with her own eyes. These people needed help, just like anyone else, and she was glad the Captain had made the decision to let the team give it to them.

-

Leaving the Burnish to get settled in, Aina collected Galo and then rejoined the rest of their teammates to check on the various food gardens around the base. The harvesting cycles were staggered, so that when one garden was newly planted, another would be just starting to produce shoots, while the next would be already filling up with plants, yet another would be ripening and so on. So there was always something to harvest when they got back from deep space. None of the team had particularly green thumbs, but they had a routine that they were all used to by now, so they generally managed to handle things okay.

Having attended to the gardens, they split up again, with Ignis assigning each of them a section of the base to cover. All the systems needed to be tested to make sure that they were working properly - environmentals, power, water. Aina got the west section this time. She decided to walk over there, even though it was a long way. After a couple of weeks stuck on the ship, she needed to stretch her legs properly.

One of the features she really enjoyed about the base was the integration with the team's wristband communicators. Not only did it allow them to easily call each other from anywhere on the base, it also gave them quick access to information and files on the central system, including music libraries. So she could switch some music on in one place and then have it follow her around as she walked, playing only on the speakers nearest to her based on the location of her wristband.

She was half humming, half singing when she passed by one of the open areas in the west section, where the ceiling was transparent so you could look up and out to space. It was kind of like a little park, the design partly based on Old Earth stone gardens. Looking through the entryway, Aina could see a number of the Burnish had gathered there, sitting or standing around the area in small groups. There were even some kids running around, playing together. As she lingered, one of them, a young teen, came racing over to her.

"Aina! Aina!" They stopped just in front of her, palms pressed to their knees as they caught their breath. "My mom's scared to say anything, but I told her we should just ask you already!"

Aina frowned, looking back over the teen's shoulder at the group of adults they had been standing with. "Sure, you can ask me anything. What's up?"

"Is it okay if they burn out here?" They gestured with their thumb at the adults. "It's a big open space, so it should be safe, right? Promise they won't leave any scorch marks. Mom says she knows how to do that."

"Oh, uh, yeah..." Aina looked around again at the gathered Burnish. "I guess that should be fine, so long as they're careful."

"Yes!" the teen responded excitedly. "I told her you'd say yes!"

They quickly ran back over to a woman that Aina assumed was their mother, to tell her the good news. She looked up at Aina, waved and called out a thank you. Smiling, Aina gave her a thumbs up in return.

Then she watched as first the mother and then all the other adults in the group ignited. The fire was surprisingly gentle, tendrils of flame curling lazily up their bodies, until they were completely engulfed. The looks on their faces were amazing, like someone sinking into a nice hot bath at the end of a long hard day - relieved, relaxing, blissful.

The rest of the Burnish, seeing the flames, swiftly followed suit, and the fire quickly spread from one group to another, all around the open space. Tracking its course, Aina spotted Lio sitting on the ground over on the far side of the area. When he ignited, she could just about make out that same blissed out expression on his face. She hadn't really considered it before, but aside from refuelling the engine and the incident in the showers that Galo had told her about, Lio hadn't burned at all while he was on the ship. Aina wondered just how much restraint that must have taken from him. Had it been hard for him to hold it in for so long?

-

At the end of the day Aina was winding her way back towards her quarters when she passed by one of the 'window seats'. There were several dotted around the base, little alcoves just off of the main corridors where there were benches positioned in front of large windows, so you could sit and look out over the surface of the moon and into the dark, clear atmosphereless sky beyond.

Meis was standing in between the benches, up close to the window, gazing out across Coyolxauhqui's surface to where the top half of Promearth was visible over the horizon. He seemed lost in thought, though not entirely relaxed, his arms folded tightly across his chest. Aina paused, unsure whether to disturb him or not. But after a moment he must've sensed her presence, because he glanced back over his shoulder at her.

"A different perspective, huh?" he said, nodding slightly in the direction of the planet.

"Yeah," Aina agreed, making her way over to stand beside him. When she'd first moved out to Coyolxauhqui, she'd dreaded the thought of being away from Promearth for so long. But now she found visiting the planet more overwhelming - so many people, so much noise. She snuck a glance over at Meis. "Can I ask you something?"

There was a slight raise of the one eyebrow that wasn't hidden behind the curtain of his long hair. "Yeah?"

"Is Lio your ex?"

Now, Aina had heard of people using the phrase 'like a dark cloud descended' to describe a change in someone's expression, but she'd never seen it played out quite so literally as she did then.

"No," Meis responded sharply, glaring. Then, after a beat: "Did he say something-?"

"No! No!" Aina quickly assured him, getting flustered. "I-I was just wondering how you meet is all!"

Meis' defensive posture seemed to soften a little. He returned his gaze to Promearth.

"We met on Mariana." He started to smile a little at the recollection. "He was new to the Flames back then, but you could already tell that he was somethin' special."

It was kind of hard for Aina to picture. Her sister, Heris, had once described the fourth planet from the Promesun as taking everything humanity knew about the way the universe worked and dumping it all in the trash. Even in layman's terms it sounded scientifically impossible, and the more time Aina spent with the Burnish, the more she wondered about how they'd managed to survive out there.

She waited a couple of beats before clearing her throat to ask, "Is everyone settling in okay? Is there anything else you need?"

"Oh, yeah. Thanks." Now Meis offered her a warm smile. "Everything's great. Been meaning to say thank you actually, for everything you've done for us."

"No problem," Aina said brightly, glad to end the conversation on a happier note. "Just doing my job."

-

As she neared her quarters, Aina heard voices coming from Galo's rooms further down the hall. He was waxing lyrical again, about his quarters, how they were so much bigger and better than the ones he had on the ship. Lio's responding comments were much quieter and Aina didn't catch what he said, but his laughter echoed down the hall, warm and heartfelt.

She hoped it was a sign that whatever had been bothering him before was now at least somewhat resolved. She'd noticed some tension between him, Gueira and Meis back on the ship, like maybe they'd argued about something. Aina didn't really know any of them well enough to speculate on exactly what it was about, but she had nevertheless wondered if it was some kind of relationship thing, based on the dirty looks that both Gueira and Meis had been giving Galo. Lio didn't strike her as the type to deliberately stir up trouble, so she'd assumed that whatever was going on between him and Galo was above board. One theory she'd come up with was that it might be a jealous ex situation, but Meis had said no, so... maybe not. Or maybe Gueira was the ex and Meis was just taking his side?

Really, she had no idea exactly what the relationship was between the three Burnish leaders, but she _did_ know Galo and frankly, she was worried that he might be getting in over his head. He always seemed to have kind of a blind spot when it came to romance. It was a fairly common thing for the people that Burning Rescue saved to flirt with them. Sometimes it seemed like it was just a sort of nervous reaction to being in danger, and every so often they'd encounter someone who specifically had a thing for firefighters, but Aina had also turned down plenty of genuine offers to go on dates with people she'd rescued.

She'd witnessed Galo receiving just as many overtures too, but they just seemed to go right over his head. He certainly liked the attention and he _lived_ for praise, so it wasn't like he was put off by it or anything. He just... didn't seem to recognise the _specific_ nature of the hints being dropped. When one guy had said, with an obviously flirty grin, that he hoped he'd get the chance to see Galo again, Galo had reacted with shock. He'd told the guy that he really hoped that never happened, because no-one should have to go through the horror of _two_ fires, one was bad enough!

But since he'd rescued Lio, the change in Galo had been obvious. Everything about Lio seemed to fascinate him; he talked about nothing else! Aina had been somewhat surprised when she'd found out that Lio was sleeping in Galo's quarters, but since they had technically been sharing a bed for a while already, she'd figured it wasn't such an crazy idea. She'd been glad at least that Lio seemed to be open to the two of them becoming close and Galo would get a chance to explore... whatever this was.

But she feared what would happen next. Lio was going to leave, it was only a matter of time, and where would that leave Galo? 

-

Aina was woken the next morning by a snuffling nose and tickly whiskers brushing against her face.

"Nuh, Vinny..." she groaned, trying to gently push the rat away without knocking him right off of the bed. As she slowly opened her eyes, she took in the sight of Lucia hovering over her. Her face was a picture of innocence, an expression which, on Lucia, Aina knew to be very wary of.

"Heris should be landing in 33 minutes," she announced, without so much as blinking.

Aina almost choked. "What?!"

She flung back the covers, ignoring Vinny's alarmed squeak, and rushed past Lucia into the adjoining bathroom. She hadn't seen her sister in person for well over a year now. Why was Heris suddenly coming here? And why was Aina only just hearing about it now? She suspected that Lucia had a hand in the mess somehow, judging by her entirely too calm demeanour, but she had no idea why her teammate would be caught up in something that involved her sister.

She washed up and dressed as quickly as she could, then headed across the base to the main landing area. Lucia and Ignis were waiting there for her. Neither of them offered an explanation, nor asked for one from Aina. Minutes later, she heard the sound of the outer doors opening and a craft landing. Nervously she fidgeted with the straps on her belt. She had no idea why she'd bothered to put her full work harness on; this wasn't a rescue mission. She wasn't thinking straight.

Finally the inner doors of the landing bay hissed open, revealing a small shuttlecraft, even smaller than Aina's own Hummingbird. It wasn't big enough for more than a couple of people, so she figured that Heris was probably alone. However, when the shuttle opened it wasn't her sister who first stepped out, but a very pretty young woman that Aina didn't recognise. She was wearing a lab coat and an ID badge on a lanyard, similar to the ones that Heris usually wore for work. Was this a work visit, then? Something to do with Foresight Engineering? Heris emerged behind the woman, her face tense but otherwise unreadable.

"Ignis," she acknowledged the captain.

"Heris," he responded, equally stoic.

Aina caught her sister's eye. She wasn't sure what to say. Why was she, of all people, the one out of the loop here?

-

Ignis gathered the whole team, along with Lio, Gueira and Meis, in one of the base's conference rooms. No-one seemed particularly keen to actually sit down, but Aina reluctantly followed Remi's example, slipping into the chair between Galo and Lucia.

"Is this everyone?" Heris asked once they'd all settled.

"Yes, and Lucia has disabled all recording equipment," Ignis assured her.

"Alright." Heris took a deep breath before beginning somewhat stiffly, "For those of you I haven't met before, I'm Heris Ardebit. I work for Foresight Engineering. This-" She turned to the woman beside her. "-is Thyma Floros. She works for Foresight Pharmaceutical. We've been working together on a collaborative project between our two companies, to find a solution to Promearth's fuel crisis."

"Fuel crisis?" Varys cut in, incredulous. "Since when do we have one of those?"

"I thought the whole point of promare was that it was unlimited," Remi added. "That's what made it possible for humanity to migrate to a new solar system - unlimited fuel, unlimited space travel, an unlimited power source naturally produced and replenished by the planet."

"You're correct that the fuel does come from within the planet," Heris responded, "and it does have unlimited _usage_. It doesn't degrade at all, no matter how much it's used or how long for. The fuel cells installed in the first buildings that were ever built on Promearth are still there and still in use decades later. But the reservoir of promare within the planet is finite and it's rapidly running out."

"Tch! The Foresight government lyin' to us? Big surprise there," Gueira groused.

"So, we can reuse all the batteries we've already got as much as we want, but we can't make new ones, is that it?" Meis queried. "It's only a problem when we wanna build new stuff?"

"Yes," Heris confirmed. "New buildings, spacecraft, mobile devices... anything that requires power."

"So, if we were to adopt a 'one in, one out' type policy," Lio pressed, "only building something new to replace something old, then there's no problem?" 

"But lemme guess," Varys chimed in, "President Foresight wants to keep expanding?" 

"Yes." Heris adjusted her glasses.

"This project you were both working on," Meis continued, "was to find an alternative fuel source?"

"Yes, either that or a way to somehow extend the supplies that we've got remaining. If we could find a way to replicate more promare from our existing supply, that would serve too." Heris heaved a sigh, fiddling uneasily with the edge of her ID badge. "Understand, President Foresight will stop at nothing to get what he wants, so he's been throwing every resource that we have into this project. We've been exploring every possible avenue, or so I thought. There was one area that I had ruled out due to the ethical implications. However, Foresight found someone else who was willing to go ahead and explore it.

"With the President's authorisation, they've been conducting experiments on the Burnish that have been incarcerated. He clearly believes that their ability to produce endless fire can somehow be harnessed as a power source. That's why Thyma was assigned to the project team."

Thyma looked up quickly at the mention of her name, clearly a little on edge. After a pause, she realised that Heris wanted her to speak.

"I-I had been working with some of the Burnish prisoners on another project. But it was voluntary. They'd get perks in exchange for participating in research studies, like nicer food, a bigger room, more time outside..." She looked down at her hands resting on the table, then quickly moved them to her lap. "I was careful not to hurt them. I mean, there's always an element of risk in experiments like that, but I... I tried to make sure they weren't hurt..." 

Heris reached over to gently rub her back, as Thyma took a few breaths to calm herself.

"The biology is complex," she continued, "we're talking about alien life-forms after all, but when I studied the chemical make-up of the flames that the Burnish produce, I found some similarities between that and promare, and I think... I think that's why President Foresight decided that they could be used in the fuel project." She bit her lip, unable to meet the eyes of anyone else at the table.

"Oh shit," Varys exclaimed suddenly. All eyes turned to him and he grinned apologetically. "Well, I mean, he's not wrong... We've seen it in practice. What Lio did..."

"What do you mean?" Heris asked.

Lio and Lucia both opened their mouths to speak, then stopped as they exchanged a look. Lio gave a little nod, indicating that the engineer should proceed.

"One of our fuel cells on the main ship got busted, thanks to Freeze Force," she tutted, rolling her eyes in annoyance, then gestured to Lio. "But Lio was able to replenish the supply using his Burnish fire."

"And that worked?" Heris asked.

"Like a charm." Lucia beamed at Lio.

"So, the Burnish could be the key to all of this," Lio said grimly, "but instead of _asking_ for our help, Foresight's using Freeze Force to round us up so that he can experiment on us against our will."

"So that's what's changed." Gueira looked to Lio, concern and rage both bubbling beneath the surface of his expression.

Heris gathered herself again. "After I found out about the experiments, I realised I had to do something, but also that if Foresight was willing to experiment on human beings like that, then going up against him would be extremely dangerous. I brought Thyma here because I believe that her life is already be in immediate danger-"

"Because she's Burnish?" Lio said suddenly. Aina blinked in surprise, turning to follow his gaze, directly across the table to Thyma. "I'm surprised you were able to work for one of Foresight's companies at all. Surely their buildings are equipped with fire alarms?"

Aina frowned. Lio had a point. All public buildings were equipped with fire alarms and systems to detect Burnish heat signatures.

"Wait! How come we haven't had any alarms since the Burnish got here?! Some of them were literally _on fire_ and nothing happened!" She looked desperately around the table at her teammates. "Did you guys not check the system when we got back?"

"I disabled 'em," Lucia stated calmly.

"What?!" Aina gasped.

"It would've been a pain to have them going off all the time, so I just disabled the whole alarm system."

Aina stared at her, aghast. "What if a fire had broken out on the base, Lucia?!"

"I rerouted to the silent alarm on my communicator so I'd get a notification if anything happened," Lucia responded with a shrug.

"And what if-"

Remi cleared his throat loudly and Aina shut her mouth. She was definitely going to bring it up with him later, though.

Thyma shifted uneasily. "Actually, when I checked I found that there were no alarms in any of the Foresight company buildings. I guess, since I was working with the Burnish prisoners so much, they had to remove them..."

Aina found that hard to believe. Foresight's anti-fire policies were incredibly strict; why would he not be enforcing them in his own backyard? Glancing over at Lio, she saw him exchange a look with Gueira and Meis. Something definitely didn't add up there.

"I was hoping," Heris continued finally, addressing the Captain, "that you would be able to protect her, Ignis. And maybe buy us some time until we can figure out how to help the rest of the Burnish being held on Promearth."

-

Heris and Thyma left to get settled in some of the guest quarters, while Lio, Gueira and Meis went to fill the other Burnish in on what they'd learned. Ignis told the team to take five, then meet him back at the conference room. Now that she'd had a chance to fully digest everything that had been said, Aina was reeling. She wasn't too surprised that the Foresight government was involved in some shady shit, but she'd never imagined that they would ever go _that_ far. The fact that her own sister was caught up in it somehow made it all the more galling. If Foresight was willing to lie about something as big as the entire human race's energy supply then what else might he be hiding from the world?

When she returned to the conference room, she found that no-one was sitting this time. The team preferred action and Ignis got straight to the point.

"We already knew that Promearth wasn't safe for the Burnish and now we know why. Lio and the others have already put together a plan, but we're gonna need to get things done faster now. Lucia, Aina, Galo, you'll be going with the Burnish to Mariana. Remi, Varys and I will stay here and deal with Freeze Force. We'll try to hold them off as long as we can."

Aina exchanged a shocked look with her teammates. This seemed to be news to everyone.

"Why us?" she asked.

"They need pilots," Ignis said simply. "You and Lucia will each pilot one of the Rook class long-range shuttles that we have." He didn't mention Galo, but Aina could easily guess why Ignis was sending him with them. He would surely be reluctant to abandon Lio at this point. "Also, I thought you might want to keep an eye on your sister, Aina."

"Speaking of!" Lucia cut in cheerily. "She shared some new engine designs with me, so we'll be making some modifications to the shuttles." When no-one reacted, she added pointedly: "Which _means_ it won't take us months to get to Mariana!"

"That's great!" Galo immediately responded. Then he stopped to think, a little frown of concentration forming. "Wait, how far away _is_ Mariana?"

"The Burnish are gonna need help packing for the trip!" Aina said quickly, slapping him on the back before he could get bogged down in that train of thought. "We'd better go help them!"

"Yes, we've got a lot to do, team, so let's get started!" Ignis barked. Everyone gave little salutes and affirmations, and Aina dragged Galo off towards the main hangar. 

-

The next morning, Aina woke full of nervous energy. She had decided that she should get some sleep if she was going to be piloting a long-haul flight, so she'd done her best to wear herself out the day before. First, she'd helped the Burnish load supplies onto the shuttles. Despite Lucia's assurances that her engine modifications would massively cut down the journey time, they'd still packed extra just in case. Gueira had assured Aina that extra supplies were always welcome at the Mariana colony, so anything they had left over from the trip would not go to waste. 

Then she'd inspected both the Rooks three times over and listened carefully while Lucia went over all the modifications that she'd made. Heris had interjected a couple of times, but she hadn't said much. Aina wasn't really sure how to approach her sister right now. Normally when Heris visited the base, they'd just talk like they hadn't even spent any time apart, but now after everything Heris had said there was this uncomfortable distance between them. Aina felt shut out, stuck on the outside looking in. But she told herself not to dwell on it, that they'd have plenty of time to talk during the journey to Mariana.

Now, climbing on board the ship that she would be piloting, she made her way through to the luggage compartment and stowed her own things, then continued on down the length of the vessel to the nose. Most of the Burnish were already there, though a number of them were hanging around outside the shuttle, taking advantage of the chance to stretch their legs one last time before being stuck on another spaceship for a while. When she got there, Aina gave the cockpit another once-over, but everything was all ready for her, same as last time she'd checked. Considering the accelerated schedule, everything was going really well, but nevertheless, Aina couldn't shake that 'calm before the storm' feeling. She was going to be glad to be in the air again.

On her way back to the main boarding hatch, she passed Meis.

"Reckon we're about ready to go," he told her, looking satisfied. "Gueira's just rounding up the last few."

"Have you seen my sister Heris come onboard?"

Meis shook his head. "No, haven't seen her, but she mighta just passed me without me noticing. Whole lot more space to manoeuvre in this thing."

Aina nodded her thanks. "Yeah, should definitely make for a more comfortable trip this time."

When she got back to the main boarding hatch, she leaned around the side and cast her gaze over the people milling about, searching for her sister.

"Oh, hi," a tentative voice caught her attention. She turned to see Thyma hesitantly stepping onto the deck.

"Hey." Aina smiled warmly, extending her hand. "We didn't really get properly introduced, did we? I'm Aina."

"Right. Yes, Heris' sister." Thyma shook her hand, her big green eyes locking onto Aina's. "I'm Thyma. Which you already know." She laughed, dipping her head in embarrassment. "Sorry, I-I'm a little nervous about flying."

"Ah. Well, as your pilot, I promise to make it a smooth ride," Aina said, flashing her a smile that she hoped looked full of confidence.

"Thank you." Thyma returned the smile, some of the tension melting away from her posture. "That makes me feel a lot better."

As she slipped past, gazing all around at the inside of the ship as she made her way along the hallway, Aina reflected on how, up close, Thyma was even more strikingly beautiful. She sighed, inwardly chastising herself. Now really wasn't a great time to be starting something and she needed to keep it professional while she was in the pilot's seat, but maybe when they got to Mariana...

Her thoughts were interrupted by the buzzing of the communicator on his wrist. Looking up and back out of the hatch, she spotted Heris making her way briskly through the milling groups of Burnish. Keeping her eyes locked on her sister, she raised the communicator to her mouth and tapped it to respond.

"Captain?"

" _Our friends from Freeze Force have arrived,_ " Ignis informed her quickly. " _As soon as you've got all your passengers on board, take off. Good luck._ "

"Roger that! Good luck to you guys too, sir."

Heris came up the ramp quickly. "You heard?"

"Yep. Follow me!" Aina said, waving her sister after her. They made their way quickly down the length of the ship. When they reached the cockpit Aina slipped straight into the pilot's seat. Hitting the comms button, she opened up a broadcast to the Burnish scattered throughout the ship and standing just outside.

"Alright, everyone, we need to take off right away, so get your butts on board and strap in!" She would have to rely on Gueira and Meis to get the last few stragglers rounded up. As she started going through her pre-flight checks, she asked Heris, "You good?"

Her sister nodded shakily. "It sounded like they forced their way in. If they damage the outside of the base-"

"The base is designed to handle worse than Freeze Force," Aina assured her. "We just need to get in the air and then your modified engine will take care of the rest, right?"

"Right," Heris agreed, forcing herself to relax back into her seat next to Aina.

Satisfied that the shuttle was ready for take-off, Aina tapped her communicator to call Lucia. "Heard we're stepping up the flight schedule 'cause company arrived a little earlier than expected."

" _Yep!_ " Lucia sounded peppy as ever. " _We're almost ready to go here. Galo's just loading up the last few passengers._ "

"Yeah, same here," Aina responded, just as the hatch opened behind her and a slightly breathless Gueira poked his head into the cockpit.

"Is Lio there?" he asked.

" _Affirmative!_ " Lucia chirped from Aina's communicator. " _One Lio Fotia present and accounted for._ "

Gueira visibly relaxed. "Meis is just getting the last of 'em on board," he told Aina.

But just as he said it, a deafening _boom_ came from behind them, thrumming through the hangar walls and rattling over the ship's hull. Before Aina could even ask what it was, a second boom sounded.

"What the hell-?"

As she turned in her seat, Meis appeared beside Gueira. "Everyone's on board and we gotta go now! They're trying to ram their way in through the hangar doors."

Aina quickly activated the screens on the ship's console to get a look at their surroundings. She could see the impact of the ramming outlined in the metal of the internal hangar doors. It was only a matter of time before they broke through.

She switched on her comms again to address the shuttle's passengers: "Everybody get to your seats and strap in! We're about to take-off!"

She immediately started the lift-off sequence, but before she could finish, she saw on the screen the doors crumple inwards and a roaring Freeze Force rover burst into the hangar. Two more came hot on its heels. They skidded to a halt in the space between the two shuttles and the officers inside immediately opened fire.

"Shit!" Aina cursed, spying on another screen that there were still some Burnish running up the ramp onto the other shuttle. To her horror, a couple of them fell under the rain of shots from the Freeze Force rifles.

Aina felt something harden inside her heart. Flipping a couple of switches, she pivoted the shuttle's undercarriage, then gripped the steering controls tightly with both hands.

"Hold onto something."

She jerked the controls viciously 90 degrees clockwise, swinging the full weight of the massive shuttle to the left. She felt the impact of the first two rovers rattle through the ship's hull and then the thud as the added weight of the third was crunched behind them. Glancing at her screens, she saw the Freeze Force vehicles tumble and roll brutally, parts splintering everywhere as they went.

Breathing heavily, she raised her communicator to her mouth. "Lucia, are you okay?!"

" _Yeah! Thanks for covering our asses!_ " came the immediate response.

"Is your hatch sealed?" Aina checked.

" _Yep! Opening the hangar doors now-_ "

As she watched the outer hangar doors open onto the moon's dull grey desert, Aina felt the impact of more shots against the ship's hull. She quickly swung the shuttle back round to point the nose towards the exit, the way almost clear now. Freeze Force were still firing and she could see on one of her screens some of the officers in their mech suits running up alongside the shuttle.

As the hangar doors finally shunted into place, Aina focused her gaze on the stars and then hit the throttle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you enjoyed this chapter and can spare the time to comment, please do! It's always really great to hear from readers. :)
> 
> You can also reach me on [Dreamwidth](https://blackcatbone.dreamwidth.org/), [Pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.social/blackcatbone) or [Tumblr](http://blackcatbone.tumblr.com/).


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